Recommendation 2013-3, Science in the Administrative Process, promotes transparency in agencies' scientific decision-making, including: articulation of questions to be informed by science information; attribution for agency personnel who contributed to scientific analyses; public access to underlying data and literature; and conflict of interest disclosures for privately funded research used by the agencies in licensing, rulemaking, or other administrative processes.

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Final Recommendation

Over the last three decades, several authorities made recommendations for improving transparency in the use of science[1] in the administrative process.[2] Partially in response to these recommendations, the executive branch and Congress have made a number of reforms to the scientific process undergirding agency decisionmaking. In 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum directing that, “[t]o the extent permitted by law, there...

Implementation

At its Plenary Session on June 13-14, 2013, the Administrative Conference adopted Recommendation 2013-3, relating to the use of science in the administrative process. The recommendation highlights a number of innovative practices undertaken by federal agencies in their use of science in regulatory decisionmaking. Among other things, it urges agencies to explain how they have deployed scientific research to address specific policy questions, to identify the scientific literature that they consider, to establish checkpoints defining the conditions under which they intend to close further research and reach a decision, and to provide attribution to agency personnel who contribute to scientific reports. The recommendation also offers proposals for encouraging data and conflict of interest disclosures for private research considered by agencies.